No one needed a win more than Doug Esh.

 After suffering through a season full of headaches and trashed equipment, the Lancaster driver opened the 18th annual Cindy Rowe Auto Glass Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek with a little bit of momentum as he waited out a long rain delay and then came out on top of a thrilling feature event for his first win of the season at Lincoln Speedway  Saturday night.

 Ironically, Esh’s wife Kelly waved the green flag for the 30-lap Sprint car main and 30 laps later, her husband was parked in Victory Lane. She won a raffle drawing from the NSCBBA tournament to be able to wave the green flag.

 “It was cool seeing my wife waving the flag and coming at her on the start,” stated Esh, whose 18th career Lincoln win was worth $7,000. “We’ve had some of the worst luck I’ve ever seen in my life. I knew we had a fast car, the right equipment, the sponsors and the owners but just bad luck every week. Hats off to the team, especially my owners Dick (Leach) and Pancho (Lawler). Man, we’ve had a bad year and it’s been tough on everyone. We’ve tore up a lot of stuff but the guys kept working their butts off and tonight it paid off.”

 Esh and the rest of the Lincoln faithful had to wait out a long rain delay after thunderstorms hit the speedway during the running of the third sprint car heat. The track was finally ready for action at 12:30am with the sprint car feature finishing up around 2 a.m.

 Like the All Star show two weeks ago that was also rain delayed, fans were treated to another great battle thanks to Fred Putney’s fastly prepared track surface.
 Esh blasted into the lead from the pole position as third-starting Fred Rahmer moved into second on lap four.

 Esh caught the rear of the field by lap seven and had heavy pressure from Rahmer and Brian Montieth as the trio raced their way in and out of lapped cars.

 Montieth blew around Rahmer for second place on lap 12 and was all over Esh at the halfway mark of the race.

 With the top two going at it for the top spot, a caution was needed on lap 18 when the front stretch lights came loose causing the race cars to be in danger.

 The caution ended a good race as Esh pulled away from Montieth during the next several laps before Esh once again caught the rear of the field with six laps to go. Esh had a near race-ending tap with the wall but was able to keep his momentum and held off a bid from Montieth for the win. Esh’s margin of victory was a scant .22 seconds at the checkered flag.

 “I saw Fred get under me one time and I knew he’s hungry for a win, but I’m way hungrier than he is,” commented Esh. “I about stuck it in the fence going down the backstretch trying to get around Keith (Kauffman). But we held on and it was a great race. Thanks to the fans for sticking around because it has been a marathon tonight.”

 Esh was treated to a rowdy fan in victory lane after not reporting to the scales for post-race weigh-in directly after the race.

 The scales were broke and not used for the evening.

 “I gotta tell the one fan up there, the scales are closed buddy, sorry about your luck,” said Esh after performing his victory lane wing dance.

 Rahmer was third over Chad Layton and Greg Hodnett with Jeff Shepard, Niki Young, Cody Darrah, Brian Paulus and 20th starting Brian Leppo completing the top 10 finishers.

 Rahmer paced the 36-car field in time trials with a lap of 13.510 seconds.

 Heats were won by Young, Layton, Paulus and Shawn Weaver. Darrah topped the B-Main.

 Brian Walls led all 20 laps to win the thundercar main over Marshall McMullen, Danny Beard, Al Crammer and Bob Bare.


PIT STOPS…Todd Shaffer made a return to Lincoln Speedway but it ended up with a hard flip during the third heat race…Alan Krimes was first alternate for the feature but was able to start when Shawn Weaver did not make the feature call…AJ Michael was transported to York Hospital following a hard crash in his heat race. Michael suffered a mild concussion and was released from the hospital Sunday morning…